Romans 1:8-17 (2)
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Intro
Intro
Good morning everyone it is a joy to be with you. If you have your Bibles go ahead and open to Romans chapter 1 and in a moment we are going to start in verse 8
as you are turning there I want to highlight something really special coming up at rivertree
(ANNOUCEMENT ABOUT GROUND BREAKING/Rocks and worship)
Tie in with verses on the floor here
we want to cover what we are doing with prayer and scriputre becadsue unless the Lord builds a house the labrous labor in vain and we know God is buidling his church
we are really grateful
Let’s read Romans 1:8-17
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Last week Ross kicked off our study in the book of Romans.
INTRO/RECAP
and as I was studying this passage I was reminded that verse 17 was one of the verses that has transformed the world for hundreds of years. It was the reformer Martin Luther began to hate. He said it almost tourted him becasue he had no idea how he could be rightous enought to live by faith
it would haunt him.
and I understand that. I can remeber when I first really felt like I was getting serious about my faith. I started attending church more often. I started to try to clean myself up. I tried to read the whole new testmante and becasue I was in high school I wore that like a bage of hounor.
I rember telling someone I had read the whole new testement. I rember I almost stopped cussing. Outside of when I’d listen to my 90s rap.
I remember this time I was sitting at grissom before school and I was highlightin bible verses and someone said why not just highlight the whole bible
I was trying to attain rightousness before God and like Luther I was failing
and maybe that’s something we have in common.because at somepoint in life we all try to earn our own right standing with the world and with God.
we work tiresly to prove that we are right. we do things. Maybe reading our bible, maybe it’s church attendance, maybe it’s just beging good and we hope it’s enough.
It’s a probablem we see in our world today. and probably something we have in common with the orgianl readers of the book of Romans and Luther.
and here in Romans chapter 1 Paul begins to answer how someone becomes rightous
and what we will see today in our passage is a righouts God makes a righoutous people for hs namesake
and we see all of this in v17. I want us to look at v 17 and I want to let that be the lense we look at the rest of the passage today and realize many have said v17 is almost the lense which you can began you understand the whole book of Romans
let’s read that again.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
We see here a righouts God makes a righouts people who live by faith and this is all for his name sake
so what is the righotuness of God?
it’s a divine attribute or quality
righteousness describes his Charcter and togheter with his actions whic are keeping his charcater
he is the judge of all the earth so it makes sense that he himself will always do right
we are told God loves righteouness and hates wickedness
we are told he rules withe a rightous sceptre of his kingdom
and in Romans as Stott would write God’s personal rightounsess is spremely seen in the cross of Christ
On the cross Christ becomes a sacrifice of atonement and he dies on the cross to demstrate his justice. The cross is the very place that Gods love and justice met
it’s on the cross God makes himself both just and the one who justifies those who have fiath in Jesus
and paul is going to go to great lengthes the rest of Romans to show the righteous charcther of God
It’s at the cross that we see Gods faitfulness to his own righteous nature. It’s on the cross we see his integrity, his self-constenicy.
but the righteousness of God is more then just his Charcter. It’s also his divine activity in His saving intervation on behalf of his people
throghout the OT and mainly in the potery sections of Psalms and Isaiah you see slavtion and righoutness are parell.
and it’s through His charcther, through his activity that rightouness is achieved
in verse 17, in chapter 3:21 we see Paul say the rightouness of GOd but later in Philippians 3:9 Paul will say it’s a righotusness form God
this simple prepesoutnal phrase helps us understand more
If we are ever to stand before God, the only way we can do it is by having a rightous status. and the way we stand before him is what he achieves through the sacrifice of the cross, in which he revels the gospel and he gives this freely to those who trust in Jesus Christ as saviour
this is most likely what paul is sharing here. When contrasted with our own rightounessness which like I shared in the introduction we can be tempted to establish instead of by faith subimmting to God righoutnessness
Gods righoutness to us is a gift which is offered in faith and it’s something we can have and enjoy
this gift is being reveled and offered to all who would have faith. it’s actually a status and declatrion that God makes over his people for his names sake
later Paul would write in
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This idea of Gods righeouness is that in Christ we actaully become the righoutness of God
so we get to marvel in the rightoues intitive of God. Putting sinners right with himself. Giving us a righoutnes not of our own but HIS OWN.
where god Justififes the unjust
were he declares the unrighouts rightounes
where he demstrates his rightouness and gives it to us
and all of this is done through JESUS. the only righotunnes one
the one who died for the unrgiohutnes
and he does it by fiath when we put our trust in Jesus and cry to him for mercy
and this righoutness of God is reveled and offred to each of us out of faith into faith
or from fatih to faith
it’s from Gods faithfunless to us that shapes our faith
God’s faith always comes first
Paul is saying. If you love God. It’s becasue he lvoed first
If you are righouts it’s because he’s rightous first
if you give it’s becasue he gave first
if you have faith it’s becasue he had faithfulness first
he’s qouting habbkuk 2:4 here which is the righteous will live by faith
showing that it’s always been by faith
but don’t miss this Paul says the righteous will
LIVE by faith
it’s the very source of the abudent life Jesus promises. that when we are delcared righouts we actually LIVE by Faith
and what I want us to do is go back to the rest of the passage and look at it through the lense of this verse
Paul starts in verse 8 by saing he thanks God through Jesus christ for all….because the news of your faith is being reported in the whole world
even here in verse 8 paul is acknowldeging the reason he thanks God is becasue Jesus christ as meditor(THROUGH)
and he’s thanking God becasue he has heard of the faith of the church in Rome
in fact it’s so powerful, so signficant, so amazing that news has spread throughout the world?
This is not a church that Paul planted but what ever is happening in Rome isn’t staying in Rome.
the news of their faith is spreading everywhere. Leads me to a questions how and why is this happening.
it’s one of the first VIRAL moments in the history of the church. Long before algorithims and social media something so profound is happening in Rome that people thorughout the world are talking about it
what’s happening?
a righouteous God is making a righoutes people for his namesake
and it’s spreading
as Ross said last week
We are now, through Christ, God’s people. Called and commissioned. Set apart in love in holiness. A community created by the gospel and for the gospel. As Paul establishes his role to share the authoritative good news of Jesus and to have the church in Rome respond in the obedience of faith, a life wholly committed to Jesus, the same appeal is being made to us. “To help one another know Jesus by sharing the gospel and our lives.”
Christ creates community. The gospel creates a family. One in which our lives bound to Christ are now also committed to one another. In other words if you are here and you are disconnected and on the fringe, then the gospel hasn’t had its full effect. If we are here and we are not engaged in humble service to one another than the gospel hasn’t had its full effect. Paul talks about being bound. Sent. Set apart and expresses God’s own affection as he calls us loved saints. God’s gospel makes a new community and establishes a new mission and cause. To make of the name of Jesus, to live for his name sake.
something different. something amazing. and somehting all about Jesus is chagnign the world
it’s why Paul is serving God with all he is as he states in v 9. and he is praying that somehow at least he would get to Rome.
and he wants to get there becasue he wants to hsare some spirtual gift with them and he belives this gift will stregthen them
that as they are with each other they would be mutually encouraged by each others faith
Paul isn’t nescarlly looking to just evangelize in rome. He is actaully waiting to strengthen and edify the belivers who are already in rome
those who have been made the rightoues by faith would actually be able to stergthen and encourage each other. They would be able to bear each others burdens. They would be able to share life together. when we get to the end of Romans. Paul is going to name names.
and this edification and this encouragment comes from the gospel.
he comes to and through a people who no longer have to mangage outcomes, or wonder how they fit in. they are posturing anymore because they know the worst thing about them…their sin. Was complete taken care of by Jesus on the cross and know they stand complete forgiven and free
Jesus would say he who the son sets free is free indeed
they didn’t have to lie, they didn’t have to prove themselves, they didn’t have put others down.
No they were going to be living in such a different way. A way of FREEDOM.
they were free to love, free to build each other up, free to forgive, and free to encoruage each other. To spur each other on in good works becasue they were made rightous by a righouts God
and he tells them in verse 13 that he had often planned to come to them but he was prevented.
reminding them that their were longings that were not fuflilled but Paul had confidence that because he had been made rightous when he got to Rome he was going tohave frutiful ministry
he was prevented by the providence of God. But he had this unwavering confidence when he was present in rome God would produce God fruit in his ministry
and this reality that he was declared not guilty before God caused and obligation and eagerness in his life to preach the gospel in Rome.
to all people. He knows the very reason the gospel got to him was becasue someone shared it with him. Someone was eager to tell him about the good news about Jesus and know Paul says becasue my life has been made new by Jesus. and I belong to him the only thing I know to do is tell people who don’t know Jesus is the son of God
it’s what he did from day one
At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time. Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”
and because he has been made right with God he know feels a debt and eagerness to proclaim this to all in Rome who still haven’t heard.
and he has no shame when it comes to the gospel.
maybe you’ve heard that verse or even memorized that verse and you’ve connected it to boldness. Almost like the idea no matter who stands agaisnt God, who might persucate me, what I might face I WILL BE BOLD for the gospel
I’m not ashmed. And why there is some aspect to that because we know Paul talks about moments of weakness and fear I think there is even more for us here today
Paul is holding out for the church of rome that there is no shame in the gospel. He’s not worried about what the gospel says about him
about his need to be saved. He had spent his life trying to earn his right standing before God but he couldn’t do it
in Phil 3 Paul gives a list of ways he was earning his rightouness
he was of the nation of isreal.
a hebrew of hebres
from the tribe of benjarmin
regarding the law of God he kept it
he had zeal for God
reagarding the righoutness that is the law he said he was blameless
he had done everything he could to be right with God. But in a moment he came to the end of himself
and says
But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
in the Lords goodness and Kindness Paul was made right with God not becasue of all he had done but because of everything Jesus had done for him. and he wasn’t ashemd to say all the stuff I was putting my trust in could never save
all the ways I tried to justify myself dind’t work. No it was the gospel
that God came in the flesh
His name is Jesus, he lived a perfect sinless life, he’s the only one blameless and the innocent one died for the guilty
he sheed his blood for me
he died for me
and he rose again and has ascedned to the right hadn of the father
and it’s that gospel that has saved me
Paul is saying have no shame in telling you becasue of the mess happening inside of me I needed someone from the outside to save me
and this salvaiton is the POWER OF GOD
it’s dynamite. It’s what we need. Something has changed. Their is a banner a delcration over Pauls life that allows him to no longer walk as a slave to sin, to no longer walk in bondage
no this banner says NOT GUILTY. and the power of God has surronded his life.
and this power will save everyone who belives. Jews and Greeks God is making a new people, a new family
and this is what has taken hold of Pauls life
and I wonder what would happen if this same gospel would take hold of your life today?
The question that Romans 1 begs for you to answer is have you been made right with God
has the righoutnes God made you righteous. and if he has you can be sure he’s done that for his name sake
becasue when God makes you right with him by the power of the gospel the same banner over Pauls life is over yours.
NOT GUILTY. and when God makes you rightoues you actually get to LIVE by faith
Faith in him to spread the gospel through you to those who don’t know him yet
faith in him that the desires and plans he has for your life will be accomplished. Even if you’ve hit a roadblock
even if providence has prevented you because he’s made you righteous you can rest and have peace knowning that whever you go you will be encouraged and encourage others faith
because if you’ve been made right with God you know you’ve been made right with others
and you can be for them. YOu aren’t posturing, or gossping, or trying to make much of yourself. No you know in Christ you’ve been made righteous for his name sake so their is a unity and love, a belief in people because you don’t have to prove yourself anymore
and it’s out of that posture that you continue to tell those outside of Christ the good news about Jesus. because as you come to more of an understand of what it means to be right with God. To not be guilty before him the more you feel a longing, an obligation and an eagerness to those who don’t know that yet
you remember that you know the righteouness of God becasue someone told you about Jesus and you posture your life in a way to tell others about him
and because of that you aren’t ashmed. You don’t have to hide or withhold. You get to say with Christians all throughout history the Cross already told you I was a sinner. The cross already told you the worst thing about me
but the cross also tells you the best thing about me and the best about them
that God made him who knew no sin become sin so we could become the righeouness of God
that happened on the cross
and that christ dying on the cross proves how deeply loved we are
and that’s good news that produces the power of salvation. that’s still changing lives today
and as you expierence that power you expierence real LIFE
becasue the rightoues will and do LIVE by faith
as we close i’d love for us to imagine what would happen if we all allowed the truths of todays text shape our lives
if we all realized that a righteous God has made us a righteous people for his namesake
what would change? What would be different
how would our faith which we live by shape rivertree? Or families? our city? our nation
it would prboably look a lot like v 8
the news of that kind of faith would be reported all over the world
and the great news about our God is he could do more then we even ask or imagine
Let’s pray
I
